Chapter IV: William Langland and His Visions

Langland first poet of the period after Chaucer 373

I. Life and Works.--A general view--Birth, education,
natural disposition--Life at Malvern--His unsettled state of
mind--Curiosities and failures--Life in
London--Chantries--Disease of the will--Religious
doubts--The faith of the simple--His book a place of refuge
for him 374

II. Analysis of the Visions.--The pilgrims of
Langland and the pilgrims of Chaucer--The road to Canterbury
and the way to Truth--Lady Meed; her betrothal, her
trial--Speech of Reason--The hero of the work, Piers the
Plowman--A declaration of duties--Sermons--The siege of
hell--The end of life 382

III. Political Society and Religious
Society.--Comparison with Chaucer--Langland's
crowds--Langland an insular and a parliamentarian--The
"Visions" and the "Rolls of Parliament" agree on nearly
all points--Langland at one with the Commons--Organisation
of the State--Reforms--Relations with France, with the
Pope--Religious buyers and sellers--The ideal of Langland 388

IV. Art and Aim.--Duplication of his personality--"Nuit
de Decembre"--Sincerity--Incoherences--Scene-shifting--Joys
forbidden and allowed--A motto for Langland--His language,
vocabulary, dialect, versification--Popularity of the
work--Fourteenth and fifteenth centuries--Time of the Reformation 394